Students decry 'outdated' dress code at Hay River high school

Two students are trying to change the dress code at Diamond Jenness Secondary School in Hay River, N.W.T. saying it's "outdated" and not equally enforced among male and female students. 

The policy has been in place for at least 24 years and it stipulates clothing isn't allowed to have "inappropriate decoration or themes" like profanity or references to alcohol, drugs and violence. It also says tops must cover the entire torso and "stay in contact" with bottoms. 

"The way the school manages it, it has become sexist a bit," said Payton Walters. 

She and her friend, Virginia Boden, say they were both "dress coded" by the principal last week — meaning they were confronted about their clothing and told to cover up their stomachs. 

Boden said the first time it happened, last Tuesday, she'd been wearing jeans, a crop top, and a zip up hoodie she didn't think was revealing. The pair said they, along with a group of other students, decided to put up posters the following day that questioned the rules and said "dress codes promote rape culture and sexism towards women." 

But those posters didn't last long. 

Lynne Beck, the principal at Diamond Jenness, said she took them down after being personally approached by three students. 

"I understood, from some other students' perspectives, that the comments were inflammatory and that the word 'rape' was very, potentially, very triggering for some students and possibly even staff members," she said. 

Unequal enforcement

Boden and Walters said a male student, who came to school the following two days in a crop top to show support for the girls who were opposing the dress code, was not treated the same way they had been. 

On Thursday, Boden said he did get dress coded "but the teachers kind of just looked at him and laughed, handed him the slip of paper and then walked away." On the Friday, he wasn't dress coded at all, she said. 

Walters, meanwhile, said she was sent to the principal's office for more than an hour, which obstructed her learning

She said other female students have been sent home from class.

Beck said she couldn't speak for the teachers, but that they may not have seen the crop top if the male student was wearing a sweatshirt or outdoor gear. 

The pair also said an email from the principal, read out in class by a teacher on Thursday, outlined why the posters were taken down. Boden and Walters said they were told the one poster — bearing the message "Why are we teaching guys that it's okay to blame girls for their lack of self control?" — targeted male students and was inappropriate. 

"That did not come from me," said Beck, when asked specifically about that message. 

Beck said she advised her staff to let students know the posters were being taken down because they were inflammatory and triggering, and that posters weren't the way to go about making a change. 

She also said she spoke to students about the steps they could take to try and have the District Education Authority (DEA) change the code, and would be having another meeting with them this week to see if they wanted to attend a DEA meeting themselves or if they wanted her to represent them. 

"I think this will provide us an opportunity to review the DJ dress code to see if it actually does include everyone and be updated to maybe promote more inclusivity in regards to the LGBTQ+ community," said Beck.

She said the policy hasn't been changed since she started working at the school in 1998. A few years ago, however,  Beck said there was a change to remove signage around the school that said "no boobs, no butts, no bellies."

Walters and Boden said they would meet with the principal to talk about a plan to bring concerns to the DEA, and they've been reflecting on how they'd like the code changed. 

"We want just a policy that … students are allowed to express themselves, as long as it's positive," said Boden. This is her first year attending public school, she said, and she had been excited about the opportunity to express herself through her clothing. 

"I just feel sick to my stomach that I'm being controlled so much."